Araluen Autographs
by Zeus DieKraft
Summary: Will, Halt, and Horace's reactions when people ask for autographs. Also, arguments that are caused indirectly by autographs. Sometimes it's just better if Will, Halt, and Horace weren't well known. :) Spoilers for basically all the books, 1-11. Please review!
1. Will

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Ranger's Apprentice or any of its characters. :)**

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Araluen Autographs

Will was still in shock the day after the wild boar hunt. It had scared him, and although he probably wouldn't admit it to anyone, he was still very shaken up. And as a result, he had become liked, even respected, yet he hadn't done anything.

Right now Will was riding his horse, Tug, up to Castle Redmont; the Baron had asked to talk to him. Will guessed he wanted to congratulate him on his bravery on the wild boar hunt - not that Will had done anything worth being congratulated for.

Will was almost to the castle when a girl Will guessed to be around 13 or 14 years of age ran up to him, calling, "Excuse me! Excuse me, Ranger Will!"

She stopped in front of Tug and Will, panting slightly and waiting to catch her breath.

After a moment, Will said, "Yes?"

She said in a fast and shy voice, "Well, I was just wondering... wondering if I could have your autograph." The girl's face immediately turned a bright red, extremely embarrassed.

Will was thoroughly confused. "Wait, you... what?"

"I was... Umm..." She paused for a moment, looking down. Then she mumbled a few inaudible words.

"What was that?" Will asked, still perplexed.

The girl seemed to pull herself together, finally, and said, "Can I have your autograph?"

"Uhh... Sure."

_Why would she ask me for an autograph? I mean, it's not like I'm famous or anything._

Then it dawned on Will. He _had_ become somewhat famous overnight. Word traveled quickly through the fief, and most everybody knew of the wild boar attack.

Then, he realized he was staring blankly at the girl, so he said, "Do you have paper or anything?"

"Uh, yeah, I do, just a second." She opened a bag that was on her shoulder and swiftly pulled out a scrap of paper, a quill, and a small ink bottle.

"Here you go," she said, and reached up to hand Will the items.

Will quickly signed his name, Ranger Will, and wrote below, best wishes for you. He handed everything back, careful not to drop any of it.

The girl read the paper and then said, "Oh, thank you so much!" Then she ran back from the way she came to share the news with an equally excited friend.

Will could still hear the girls shrieks and a loud, "He's so hot!" (He rose his eyebrow at that comment) as he rode the rest of the way to Castle Redmont.

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**Please Review! :) Thanks for reading!**


	2. Halt

**Thank you for the reviews! I decided to write a similar situation with Halt.**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Ranger's Apprentice or any of its characters. :)**

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Halt was not accustomed to fame. Now some people might think that, being born into a royal family, he would be used to it. But this was different. Back in Hibernia, his brother, Ferris, had outshone him in everything, including his sparkling personality. Halt didn't exactly have a sparkling personality. Now Halt was known as the hero in Araluen who helped destroy Morgarath's army.

It was only a week after the battle. People in Redmont would come up to him, thank him for his services, and, most of the time, just walk away. But one time, Halt had a very odd encounter….

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"Truth or dare?" Melanie asked her friend, Julie.

"I'll go with dare for once."

"Finally! I was beginning to think that you'd never pick dare!"

"Well, what is it?"

"Hmm…" Melanie stared off in the direction of Castle Redmont, thinking hard. Then it came to her. She could see the Ranger from Redmont fief riding his horse up to the castle. Nobody ever talked to Rangers – they were rumored to use magic to conceal themselves.

"Okay, Julie. I dare you to…" She paused for the dramatic effect. "…go up to that Ranger and ask for his autograph."

Julie's jaw dropped. "But… but…" she sputtered. "You can't expect me to just go up to him! It's impossible! Give me a different dare!"

Melanie smiled evilly. "Nope. You have to. It's a _dare_."

"Maybe… but you have to come with me."

"No. You have to get his autograph by yourself."

"You never said I had to _get_ his autograph. You just said I had to ask," Julie pointed out.

"Fine, but you still have to do the dare. Right now."

"Okay… wish me good luck."

"Good luck. Now go!"

Julie slowly got up and started to jog over to the Ranger. It didn't look like he was in a hurry, because his horse was just trotting along.

Too soon, Julie was almost to the Ranger.

"Excuse me, Ranger! Hello!"

The Ranger slowed his horse to a stop and looked at Julie. He was very intimidating.

"Hello. I was wondering if I could get your autograph."

The Ranger just stared and raised his eyebrow. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

"Umm…" Julie wasn't sure what to say. "I have paper and ink."

"You want my autograph?" the Ranger replied. He didn't sound very excited about it.

"Yes, please, if it's not too much trouble." Julie held out the paper, quill, and ink, waiting for him to take it.

After what Julie thought was an hour, the Ranger took the writing supplies and wrote something on the paper. He shoved it back at her and he and his horse trotted away. Just like that.

_Well, then._

Julie ran back over to Melanie, proudly holding her signed paper above her head.

"There you go," Julie said. "I completed the dare. Just like you asked."

"Let me see," said Melanie, even though she had seen the Ranger sign it with her own eyes.

They both looked at it, trying to decipher the scrawl.

This is what was written there:

_Arratay_

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	3. Horace

**Thank you for the reviews with Halt!**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Ranger's Apprentice or any of its characters. :)**

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Horace loved being famous. He knew it sounded a bit conceited, but it was fun to walk around and have random people he didn't know come up to him to say how brave he was to defeat Morgarath in single combat. He was even picked to be in King Duncan's Royal Guard.

Horace caught on quickly to fame, but the first few encounters were a little awkward.

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Horace had to go to Castle Redmont to talk to Sir Rodney. He had no idea why. But he wasn't worried, and he decided he would go up early to watch apprentices at work. It fascinated him to see that these apprentices were only a few years younger than him, yet he was so much _better_. Again, he knew that if he said that out loud, he would be considered the most conceited hero of all time, but he had to admit, it was true.

Horace mounted Kicker and urged him forward into a canter. He closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the breeze. It was a warm day – a perfect day to be outside.

People were walking here and there, just enjoying the wonderful weather. One group of giggling teenagers was to the right of him. A few couples just sat in the grass, talking. There were three girls, probably around seventeen or so, talking in his direction. Then Horace realized they were trying to talk to him. He veered Kicker off the dirt trail leading up to the castle and the girls started waving.

_Hmm… do I know them?_

"Hello, Horace," one girl with curly blond hair said.

"Do I know you?"

"Uh, no," another girl said. She had red hair.

"But we could," the blond one said.

"How do you know my name, then?" Horace was very confused. He didn't know the girls, they were a few years older than him, and he had never even seen them in his life.

"Oh, we just sort of know…" the third girl said, smiling at him sweetly. Horace's face turned pink.

"Oh… oh."

"Can we have your autographs?" the blond girl asked hopefully.

"Yeah… sure."

"Here you go, sign all three papers."

"Okay." Horace signed each of the papers very slowly, like he was still learning to write.

"Here you go."

"Thanks," the blond said, and took the papers from him and distributed them among her friends.

"Well, we'll see you around," said the redhead, and she winked.

"Yeah… sure."

All three girls turned around and walked away, leaving Horace very dazed. Horace just sat there, staring at the girls as they walked. It was at least a minute before Horace came to his senses.

_Snap out of it_, he told himself, and urged Kicker into a run.

But Horace wasn't looking in front of him. He was still looking at the girls.

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**I hope Horace wasn't too OOC. Let me know what you think! :)**


	4. Incident 1

**Thank you for all the reviews I have received so far! This chapter is a bit different – it's not solely about one character and their experience when being asked for autographs.**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Ranger's Apprentice or any of its characters. :)**

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"Be safe, Will." Alyss embraced Will tightly, not letting go for quite a long time.

"I'll be fine, Alyss," Will responded. This was the first time he was going on a mission outside of Araluen since they got married.

"I'll miss you," Alyss said, trying to hold back the tears welling up in her eyes. Will was going to be gone for at least three months. Three whole months without Will, not knowing if he was alive or not.

"Me, too," was all Will said. They were inside Will's cabin. Halt and Horace were outside, waiting. Probably becoming agitated by Will's long goodbye.

They kissed for a moment, and pulled apart. Alyss averted her gaze from Wills. She couldn't bear another moment.

Will took her hand and walked slowly to the front of the cabin. Will hated this almost as much as Alyss, but he was given a mission, and he had many people counting on him, most of all King Duncan.

When Will opened the door to the fresh spring day, two very red faces greeted him. Two very mad, red faces.

"What happened to you two?" asked Will. Horace and Halt were staring daggers at each other, looking like they were ready to kill.

Halt could barely speak. "He… stole… my… bow… I… swear…" he got out.

No one messed with any Ranger's bow. It was like playing with matches in a straw house in the middle of the Arridi desert.

Will raised an eyebrow at Horace. He thought Horace knew Halt would explode. In fact, he knew for certain Horace knew that. He had tried it with Will once and, well, it turned into a pretty big deal.

"He…" Horace faltered, his face turning redder by the second.

"Hmm?" Will asked impatiently.

"He… well… You see, there were these girls…"

Will sighed. "Go on."

"They asked for my autograph… and Halts, too…."

"And?" Will said. They were supposed to be leaving right now.

"Halt thought I was being a bit too nice to them," Horace ended lamely.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"It was insulting. Halt said that I shouldn't be _flirting_ with girls when I have a wife. I wasn't _flirting_."

Halt wasn't laughing or smirking. He wanted his bow back.

"So that's why you stole Halt's bow?" Will could sort of see Horace's reasoning, but there was still a big gap in the story.

"Yeah, but you don't understand. It was insulting."

"How exactly did you get Halt's bow without him noticing?" Will asked. Halt was rarely found without his bow, and since they were leaving soon, Halt would definitely have his bow slung over his shoulder.

"I don't know."

"What?" Will said, confused and on edge. They really needed to be going.

"He apparently doesn't _know_," Halt said, glaring at Horace.

"What do you mean? Just give it back to him, Horace, so we can be on our way."

"I would…" Horace responded, "…but it's, uhh… up there." He pointed vaguely towards a big maple tree.

"You got it stuck—in a—_tree_?" Will looked at his friend, disbelief etched on his face.

"Uh… yeah," Horace said, and shrugged.

"And you're going to make me go climb up and get it, aren't you?"

"If it's convenient."

"I can't believe you. I really can't." Will jogged over to the tree. He had climbed this tree a few times, so it would be fairly easy, but he didn't know where the longbow was, so that might prove to be a problem. He gracefully climbed the base of the trunk without a sound, and settled on one of the branches.

"Where is it, Horace?" he called down.

"It's over there," Horace said, and pointed to the left and a bit above Will.

"Okay." He climbed up a few more branches and caught sight of it. There the longbow was, all innocent-looking, balancing between two branches. Will climbed carefully over to it and slung it over his head.

In no time, Will was back on the ground with Halt's bow. Halt grabbed it back without saying thank you.

Then he noticed Alyss was still at the cabin door, smiling and giggling silently. Will had completely forgotten she was there.

"You are completely ridiculous, you know," she said, "All three of you."

Indeed, they were.

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**There ya have it. Don't forget to review! :)**


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